A Traitor in Their Mist
by becausemaiko
Summary: Zuko has trouble getting over Mai; Zuko realizes the cons of his job; Suki expresses concern over loyalist uprisings. Word Count: 861 Pairing: Maiko, friendship Suko


The first bits of daylight fell on Zuko's eyes, making him groan and roll over to avoid the light. He'd lied awake for at least an hour already, woken by his dream. He only ever saw her at night. Zuko smiled… Mai.

Zuko knew the stony silence she'd maintained since her departure was no one's fault but his, he'd realized from constantly looking back on his mistakes how many and how deep they actually were. He couldn't blame Mai for wanting nothing to do with him anymore. It was hard, obviously, to really accept that she wasn't coming back. It had been a month since their break-up, three weeks since his return from Hira'a, and one week until Yangchen's festival, an Airbender thing Aang was practically forcing him to go to.

Being the Firelord, Zuko couldn't simply collapse and mope about his now ex-girlfriend like he wanted to, in fact he had to push pretty much everything down to keep the country from collapsing under his feet. But every morning he started his mornings with thoughts of Mai. Then he remembered why she no longer woke up beside him.

And every morning, without fail, he woke up heartbroken and alone.

It was a routine morning for Zuko, some governers spoke to him about their growing concern about this and that, Zuko got another report of a Ozai loyalist protest/riot he'd have to deal with soon, he sent and received some letters, and whoop-de-do the Earth King changed his mind yet again about agreeing to the whole city-for-all-types-of-bending idea. He now decided to take a quick lunch break for some much needed alone time.

He knew this job was important, but after a year it had lost a lot of its shine. It was stressing at times, when he solved one problem two more sprouted in their place. Most of his friends from Team Avatar visited him for maybe a month altogether since he became Fire Lord, and Uncle rarely stayed for long. It was isolating and demanding work, sometimes he wondered how he stayed sane.

When he returned to the throne room, he found an annoyed Suki waiting for him. "Where have you been?" she said sharply. Confused, Zuko quickly ran through his mental list of things to take care of today, was there a meeting scheduled for this afternoon that he forgot about? Suki, taking his hesitance for offense, softened her features apologetically. "Sorry, but I have urgent news."

Suki took out a map of the Fire Nation with a bunch of marks on it, and looked up at Zuko then back down at the map. "Look. Those are the recent loyalist uprisings, for lack of a better word. They're all at the Fire Nation's pressure points." She pointed to the north-western tip of the Fire Nation. "Hira'a, all coinciding with your visit there." Her finger moved to the Earth Kingdom "Yu Dao, almost constantly since you called off the Harmony Restoration Movement." Her finger moved to the heart of the Fire Nation "And all around Palace City." She looked up at him, the map still lying ominously on the table. "They're approaching the capital. Zuko. They're coming for you."

Zuko glanced down at the map and scanned it. He knew there'd been problems, but he hadn't realized the magnitude of the situation. Seeing all laid out for him like that… it was kind of scary. "How do we know these aren't just in response to the Yu Dao situation? They're all where I've been in the past month."

Suki shook her head. "That's what I thought at first, but why wouldn't they stop attacking Yu Dao by now? And how did they know about Hira'a so soon, you missed that uprising by a matter of hours. And how do they have force to get so close to Palace City? Zuko, this is turning into civil war."

Zuko nodded, fear and pressure mounting the longer he stared at the map. "You're right, it _is _bad, but can't we try and get to the root of these problems before it becomes war? With the threat from the Earth Kingdom, the nation has to be united in order to survive if the Earth King decides to mount another attack."

Zuko looked up at Suki, who was still staring at the map. She looked up slowly and hit him with a concerned stare. "What worries me is how they knew about the Yu Dao plan."

"They didn't, Suki. It's just a coincidence."

Suki's concern grew into an impatience that rang in her voice. "That knowledge is top secret, besides the two of us, Aang, Toph, Katara, and Sokka the only ones with the knowledge are right in the top of your government. It wouldn't make sense to keep such a fight going, especially when they don't have resources coming in from a city. They do know."

Zuko opened his mouth, then closed it again. "What are you saying?" he asked, though he already knew the answer.

Suki looked directly at him, every inch of her a warrior with warrior's knowledge and warrior's priorities. "I'm saying we have traitor. And that traitor knows everything."


End file.
